Eragon's true Love
by Arkarian23
Summary: What if Arya was not the one born of Noble birth in Angela's prophecy. What if that person was not born till hundreds of years after the war with Galbatorix. A Oneshot of one of my challenges.


**Here's me, I'm back guys, and celebrating my return with an update.**

**This is a oneshot for one of my challenges that I may choose to expand on later. This story will be slightly AU in that Eldunari don't exist and Brisingr wouldn't set itself on fire whenever Eragon says Brisingr, there were no eggs in the vault of souls and Eragon defeated Galbatorix through different means to the cannon story, this is not a completed story, more of a showcase of what the story might become in the future if I decide to write it. If you'd like to see my challenges then check out my Profile page.**

Eragon's true Love challenge (an inheritance cycle fanfic)

-Arya and Murtag are dead, leaving Eragon as the last Dragon Rider

-Eragon's Egg hatched twin dragons, Sapphire and Sapphira

-Sapphire is the last living male dragon and took Sapphira as a mate

-There are no issues with incest etc between dragons

-No eggs have hatched following the fall of Galbatorix and the Riders never truly returned

-Eragon rescues one of the last of the Elves, a young girl

-A female dragon egg hatches for the elf girl

-Eragon and the Elf girl fall in love

**Apologies in advance for misspelling any of the words in the ancient language or those that are not English, I'll get to checking them over eventually.**

Three days they had been flying across the expanse that was the Hadrac desert. Eragon watched from above as a group of nomads made gestures with their weapons at the giant Dragons flying above them. How they had spotted them at their height Eragon had no idea.

"_What strange humans you people are, what's the point in all that waving about?" _A distinctly feminine voice asked in Eragon's mind.

"_Well it probably isn't something we could understand, they are clearly a lower life than us, sister," _a second, more masculine voice answered.

"_Oh ha ha, Sapphire, rub in the fact I'm a human, anyway we aren't all that bad, look at me for instance," _Eragon replied jovially, knowing full well how his bonded would reply.

"_Well, you don't count you're our rider!" _both dragons replied immediately and in unison. Eragon always felt weird when they did that. Trying to concentrate on two voices at the same time is hard enough, but when they are both inside your head, it just gets worse. Eragon smiled as their love and care for him washed over their three way link, the only one of its kind.

As they were talking they reached the end of the desert and began gliding over the trees and rivers of the human country, what was, and hopefully might still be the Empire.

"_It's been too long since we left," _Eragon thought and he felt silent agreement from the two dragons with him through their link.

As night approached they chose to settle down near a small hill with a few trees growing on it that offered a bit of extra shelter from the elements. Eragon jumped down off Sapphira, relieved her of the bag strapped to the saddle at the base of her neck and started setting up the few camping tools he needed. Meanwhile, Sapphira patted down the ground into a soft comfortable bed and Sapphire flew off to find food.

Eragon finished gathering a few dead branches and logs from the nearby corpse of trees and using his magic, set them alight with a bright blue flame. Ever since the final battle with Galbatorix and his power was awakened the flames burnt blue, regardless of the fuel used and what it's normal colour would be and that came in handy now, the blue, almost white fire offered an abundance of light and even though he could see clearly without the light he knew that some travellers might not simply wander into the camp and cause problems if they knew someone was already there.

On the other hand he knew that he might attract visitors for the exact same reason, the desire for a cooked meal won out in the end though and a few hours later Eragon was busy cooking a spit with two rabbits on it which Sapphire had managed to catch. How something that big could catch something so small, Eragon would never understand, despite sharing the memories of the experience with his bonded.

Eragon was chewing on the leg of a rabbit and the dragons were sharing a deer they had found when Eragon heard voices in the distance, he immediately searched them out with his mind. Mentally berating himself for not using his mental powers to check the environment he started to activate his sixth sense. Almost immediately he sensed the thoughts of all the creatures around, from the trees to the north, to the smallest bacterium living in the fertile soil beneath his feet. It had been so long since he had even needed this level of awareness but he fell back into using it easily enough.

Eragon silently motioned for the Dragons to be silent and with a gesture of his hand turned the blue flame to a more natural red before checking Brisingr for any damages that might impede him in battle, why he still did that after so many years was often questioned by the odd traveller he met but he simply explained that it reassured him every time. _"After all, a warrior should always keep an eye on his equipment,"_ Eragon thought to himself, remembering the old Varden battlemaster who had once lectured him on the finer aspects of maintaining a sword.

The group was fast approaching the campsite, there were ten of them and from what Eragon could tell, they were fairly agitated, it had been too long since he had sensed another Human mind but these people felt slightly different from what he remembered, more rough round the edges, perhaps slightly more primal than Eragon's memories of what humanity used to be like.

"_It makes sense though, after all the balance between Dragon, Human and Elf has been poor since we won the war. It was bad before then too," _Sapphira thought, sensing Eragon's thoughts, _"it stands to reason that humanity has lost more of itself in the time we have been gone."_

As much as it pained Eragon to think it, it was clearly true, Humanity had declined somewhat since the fall of the Riders and Dragons, no doubt the Elves had too, and since no new Dragon eggs had hatched the balance had never returned and the magical benefits to Humanity and Elf kind had no doubt been lost.

But while the Elves would lose much of their supernatural strength, grace and their ageless beauty, Humanity would lose some of their intelligence and what was left of Human culture Eragon had been privy to before he left would no doubt be some sort of myth by now, him too come to think of it.

Eragon considered this as the Humans advanced directly towards the campsite. No doubt two Dragons wouldn't go unnoticed for long, especially on account of their enormous size. They were only a few hundred yards away. Eragon could actually smell them, that was new, he remembered being able to smell humans after the Agaeti Blodhren but these ones were positively rank, though positively perhaps wasn't the appropriate word to use. Clearly the decline had affected hygiene aswell.

As they approached, Eragon quickly slipped into the mind of one of the group and unnoticed searched for his knowledge of language, quickly absorbing all the changes in the local English that he could, Eragon sent it across his link to the Dragons. At least now they would be able to understand these Humans. Eragon had learnt the trick after visiting a group of nomads after saving one of their group with magic. It had been the only way to avoid a confrontation and it came in useful now.

Eragon stepped forward as they approached, so that he was silhouetted in the light of the fire and hopefully they would only notice him and not the fire breathing monsters they no doubt thought were long dead or simply myths.

"Greetings, is there something I can help you with?" Eragon asked politely as they moved close enough to hear Eragon speak.

The group spread out, so they could all see the stranger before them. One stepped forward, he was wearing scraps of plate armour strapped to his arms and legs. There was a leather coif on his head and a claymore strapped to his back, his chest was covered by a leather jerkin. "What are you doing on our property?" he asked threateningly.

"I was simply passing through, I am sorry if I intruded upon your land, I simply needed to set up camp for the night and I will be gone tomorrow," Eragon replied calmly, hoping to avoid a confrontation. No doubt he could easily kill these men with a thought, but he definitely didn't want to, especially if this was actually their territory.

"You are a lone traveller?"

"Yes, I just returned from a long journey, obviously I am a bit out of the times with the land ownerships, I do apologise again if I intruded upon your territory, I was not aware this area was under personal ownership," unfortunately it was becoming painfully obvious who and what these men were. Eragon took a quick glance at each of them, they were wearing similar attire to the leader, Bandits.

"_Eragon two of them are trying to sneak round you to your pack, should we deal with them?"_

"_Hold off for a minute, I want to try reasoning with them first."_

"_Like that worked the last time,"_ Sapphire remarked.

Eragon internally grimaced at the memory and looked towards his soon to be attackers. "There is no need to fight me friend, no one has to get hurt, why don't you just leave peacefully and we can forget any of this happened."

The leader chuckled, "And what are you gonna do, you're just one against ten, surrender and we will be merciful and, perhaps we won't kill you," he looked Eragon up and down, Eragon looked fairly average in the light cast by the fire, except for the sword at his belt, but that was simple fair for any traveller, in the hopes of scaring away bandits, not that it would work on him and his men.

Eragon looked the bandit leader up and down, he didn't like killing and had almost considered a vow of peace after the war, sapphire and Sapphira had talked him out of it though, after all, he was perhaps the greatest warrior in existence and one who could be trusted with his power to keep the peace. Eragon drew his sword and looked towards the bandits. "Surrender and swear a vow in the ancient language to do no more harm and I will allow you to leave."

The bandit smirked, "we won't be swearing any oaths to you kid, attack!"

Two of the bandits stepped forward and drew their weapons grinning at the easy kill. Eragon raised Brisingr and took a battle stance. It was over in seconds, both bandits swung their weapons at the same time, one with a claymore, the other with a longsword. Eragon brought Brisigr up at the same time he jumped to avoid the longsword, he swung Brisingr at the claymore and sliced through the poorly crafted iron with ease.

The blade broke in two. Eragon continued with the swing decapitating the wielder of the claymore, then, landing at his feet he spun round, switching sword hands mid-spin and stabbed down, sinking the blade almost hilt deep through the other man's collar bone. The second bandit fell as Eragon drew his blade back and flicked it to remove the excess blood. Eragon turned to the bandit leader.

"This is your last chance to surrender, or I will kill you,"

"_Eragon they are within reach of us we won't stay hidden much longer," _Sapphira sent.

"_Ok do what you will with them I'll handle the rest."_

Eragon looked back towards the bandits who were looking upon him in surprise. Clearly the speed he had demonstrated in killing their comrades had them scared, just like every other battle. Behind Eragon he heard a gasp as one of the bandits spotted the moving shadow that was Sapphire. The man screamed as he was caught by the giant beast between his jaws.

A burst of blue light and a roar a second later revealed how Sapphira chose to deal with the other man as his scream was caught in his throat as he was burnt to ashes.

Eragon decided to release the illusion on the flames and allowed them to return to their original colour. The much brighter flames lit up the two Dragons on the other side of the fire. One of the bandits turned and ran, the others were quaking in their boots.

"Holy shit a, a Dragon," the leader gasped and then turned to Eragon, "I surrender, please don't kill me!"

Eragon looked at the pitiful man before him. "I offered you peace, hoping to avoid revealing my presence in the land, I'm sorry but I can't allow you to live."

The remaining bandits in a last bid to escape ran at Eragon, wielding their swords to poor effect. Eragon simply dodged each attack and danced through them, eventually finishing on the leader, impaling him through the heart.

Eragon stood over the bodies, wondering at the Human arrogance and greed that had led to their deaths. Sapphire flew over Eragon and flew after the remaining bandit who had fled, a few seconds later and he was sent to the void.

"I never enjoy doing that," Eragon said, watching over the still bodies. With a burst of magic he dug several graves and moved the bodies into them before allowing the dirt to drop back into place. The only thing to indicate the bandits had ever been there was a slight rise in the soil where their bodies were hidden.

"_Do we stay now or leave, our position has been compromised, no doubt there are more men like those," _sapphire said.

"_Yes lets leave as soon as possible, hopefully we can reach the capital by dawn, so much for a relaxing night."_

The three beings of magic quickly disembarked, only leaving the charred remains of the campfire to indicate they had ever been there.

"_it might be more appropriate to visit the Elves first, they will no doubt be more hospitable than any Humans we encounter."_

With a sigh Eragon agreed with the idea, they turned North, to the Elves in the ancient forest that was Du Weldenvarden.

They reached the outskirts of the forest a day later to see the remains of many felled trees, from the air it could clearly be seen that the forest had shrunk by at least a quarter from what it once was.

"What has happened here?" Eragon wondered.

"_Look down below, there is a group of Humans, it looks like they are cutting down the forest!" _Sapphira said, this was the last thing Eragon expected, the last time he heard about people stealing wood from the forest, the thieves had been killed brutally by the Elves who had encountered them. Either the Elves were not protecting Du Weldenvarden like they used to or they had lost the means to protect it. Being the most powerful magical race in the land, this did not bode well.

"_We should follow them back to their camp," _Sapphire said.

"_I have a better idea," _Eragon thought back, and swiftly searched in his mind for one of the loggers. A moment later he had uncovered the location of their base.

"_I will head to the camp on foot, I want to find out what exactly is going on here and I can get in and out without attracting attention like you two can, Sapphire land behind some trees, and I'll dismount."_

The Dragon complied and in minutes Eragon was making his way out of the forest, covered in a deep blue traveling cloak, and with Brisingr at his hip, after all it wouldn't do to enter a possible enemy camp unarmed. Sapphire and sapphire could rest for a while after their several days of travel.

A few hours of walking at a brisk pace and the mental link between Eragon and his bonded was weakening, he could barely feel their thoughts, it wouldn't be long before he couldn't hear them at all. Unwilling to bear the idea of prolonging the sorrow of gradually being separated Eragon bid them goodbye and severed the link.

A few minutes later and Eragon encountered the wooden walls of a large camp. He was far from the entrance and quickly cast the words in the ancient language that would bend light around himself, rendering his almost invisible to the naked eye. He grabbed hold of the rough wood, his gloves preventing and harm to his palms and began climbing.

It had been an hour of wandering through the camp unnoticed and Eragon had discovered little, apparently whoever was the leader wanted much more of the forest removed and it was putting a strain on the teams that were being sent into the ancient woods. There were a few men talking about disappearances of members of a team or entire teams. Perhaps the creatures of the forest were fighting back at least. Eragon remembered some of the animals he had seen in Du Weldenvarden, no doubt a few of them had encountered the invaders destroying their home and were not pleased.

The big question was, where were the Elves in all this? Surely they had not abandoned the forest they had called their home since before even Humanity had arrived on the shores of Alagaesia. Eragon continued to wander and ponder on this this until he heard two guards talking of a prisoner being held by the headquarters, what surprised Eragon even more was the animosity of the men towards the Elf they had captured. Eragon quickly searched through the man's mind and found the lead tent and raced there as quickly as he could, stealth be damned.

Eragon's magic failed him as he reached the building and opened the door. He was far from out of breath but his heart was racing, if only in fear for the prisoner. Eragon looked round as he entered the structure. It was more of a building than a tent, built of collapsible wooden beams, it was easily two stories high and huge, _"slightly bigger than Sapphire or Sapphira,"_ Eragon thought with a chuckle.

As he entered he noticed a few people were staring at him and his sudden arrival. Many men were gathered together, around something Eragon could not see. A voice rang out.

"Come on bitch be a good girl and make us happy, or do I have to punish you with a beating?" There was a whimper and then Eragon heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh as the man backhanded the girl.

"What are you doing?" Eragon asked, stepping forward and into the light of the room, letting the door swing shut of its own accord.

The crowd parted to reveal a large man in his thirties with a beard and a large belly. He was dressed in colourful clothes that indicated his status as someone of nobility, he had a huge handlebar moustache that seemed to hold itself upright without any grease or wax. Eragon felt the impression he had encountered this man's distant ancestor, remembering another man, all those years ago, one of the many he had had to kill to depose Galbatorix.

"Who is that? Guards, remove this peasant, I'm busy here."

Eragon didn't hear the man, all he saw was the young girl kneeling on the floor, slowly rising, a large welt on her cheek from where the man had hit her. She was wearing green and brown rags that might have been a blouse and skirt once. She looked like a human for the most part, except for the pointed ears.

Two men approached Eragon, hands on the pommels of their swords they reached for Eragon's arms. Brought out of his shock, Eragon looked back up at the leader. He felt rage, dragonic rage, the bloodlust of a Dragon started to swell in his throat and his vision began to turn red. Eragon tried to force it back for a second and get his bearings. Two men were trying to drag him to the door, there were ten more surrounding the girl, one of them with his manhood exposed, erect, his intentions clear.

Eragon released himself to his rage.

The two guards were flung back like dolls, one of them flying through the wall, another through a beam support. The wood creaked dangerously. "How dare he, guards!" the moustached man shouted as several heavily armed men burst through various doors and panels in the side of the tent. They surrounded Eragon, swords and spears pointed in his direction.

Surrounded by a forest of metal, Eragon did the only logical thing. He drew his sword. Attuned to his wishes after so many years of combat with the man who had created it, the blade rang a pure clean note, almost begging to be unleashed on the creatures that would defile such a young girl. Eragon looked at the guards surrounding him, they took a step back, none of them had seen such rage before, it was unnatural, it was not Human, it wasn't even Elven, this was the righteous fury of a Dragon.

Eragon sprang forward, jumping over the spears and swords previously aimed towards him and slashed down in mid-air, killing two men before they had a chance to react, their armoured helmets useless against the perfectly honed edge of the last and greatest sword to be forged for a Rider.

Eragon landed on his feet and spun round and leapt back into the crowd of soldiers before they could recover, their grouping had been an advantage before, when surrounding a single man, but now they were stuck, many of their weapons were trapped among those of their comrades and they were too slow to respond to the slaughter that charged towards them.

It was over before it even began, Eragon turned back towards the nobles as the body of the last guard fell, first the torso, then the legs, he had been cleaved in two.

"Who are you boy?" the man with the moustache asked in shock.

"You want to know who I am? I am both old and young, I am the only one of my kind and if I am guessing right from the moustache, I believe I killed one of your distant ancestors."

The man considered the boy, or perhaps man before him, his eyes alighted on the sword, it was bathed in red but there was still some blue showing .

"No it cannot be, you do not exist," he gasped.

"Well looks like I was right, I appear to have become a myth; how, depressing," Eragon stated in mock sorrow. Then his face turned hard again. "I think I will repeat my previous question though, what are you doing to that girl?" Eragon's rage grew back as he looked once again upon the bloodied girl. He channelled his newfound hate into Brisingr, the blade grew warmer in his hands, Eragon knew the heat would not harm him and he gripped the wire covered handle harder, channelling more of his rage, the sword began to glow, still drying blood on the metal started to smoke.

The nobles eyed the weapon in fear. If the legends were true the entire camp was now at the stranger's mercy. Eragon raised the sword and stepped forward, these men were going to die. The moustached man, looked at him in fear and then towards the others. "Well go on, fight him!" he said in panic shoving one of the men forward, a second later the others drew their weapons and slowly approached Eragon, who smirked. Four seconds later and only the girl, Eragon and her captor were still alive.

The man grabbed a dagger off his belt and held it to the girl's neck. "I'll kill her, I mean it!"

Eragon grinned, this would be interesting. "Well it appears we have reached an impasse, I cannot approach for fear of the girl getting hurt and you can't leave or let her go because the moment you do…" he trailed off.

Eragon let this sink in for a moment, then leant down, and picked up a tiny scrap of metal off the ground it was barely bigger than his thumbnail in diameter but it would do the job nicely. Eragon studied it for a second before muttering a few words in the ancient language. The scrap started to glow, cherry red. The man's face grew more fearful as he watched the Rider admire the now perfectly spherical drop of metal which held its shape on his finger despite the laws of gravity that would have had it pooling on the floor.

Eragon looked back up at the despicable man, holding the bead of metal on the end of his finger he brought it to his mouth, and blew. At his command the metal surged forward, embedding itself in the man's arm. He screamed as the molten metal started to burn through his skin. It reached his veins and arteries and started to flow with his vital fluids, spreading through his blood through to the rest of his body, he dropped the dagger and fell to his knees gripping his burning wrist. A few more words from Eragon and the molten iron was feeding itself from the energy of the now unconscious man.

Eragon felt his rage subside as he approached the Elf girl, "are you ok, did they hurt you?"

She looked up at her saviour fearfully, clearly too scared to speak. "I won't hurt you I promise," the girl still didn't respond, clearly she was terrified of Eragon after his display of swordsmanship and magic. Eragon considered her for a minute and mentally berating himself for not considering this sooner repeated what he had said in the Ancient Language, knowing that it would guarantee her trust. Eragon kneeled down and taking off his cloak, wrapped it round the girl to keep her warm. She leant forward and wrapped her arms round his neck, and held on tightly, burying her head in his chest, crying wet tears. Eragon didn't want to disturb the traumatized girl and picked her up in his arms.

He stepped outside to see a large group of soldiers gathered round the door. Eragon looked over them, "I just killed at least twenty guards and all of the leaders in that tent, anyone who gets in my way will suffer the same fate," and with that he started walking, the fearful crowd parted as he kept up his confident stride. A few minutes later and they were at the gates of the camp. With a word the lever holding the support in place dropped and the wooden drawbridge opened. Eragon continued his stride, never faltering, never looking back.

It was an hour later when Eragon reached the treeline and started making his way to the Dragons who had planned to hide a mile or so within the forest to avoid detection. The girl had fallen asleep in his arms and was breathing gently on Eragon's shoulder, her silver coloured hair had fallen over her face as Eragon had been walking. Gently, Eragon swept it aside so it fell behind her back.

Eragon stopped for a minute to consider the girl in his arms, he didn't know what to do, he knew she needed to be returned to her people but after so long gone he had no idea how to find them. Sighing he began walking again but was stopped when an arrow flew through the trees and embedded itself in the ground at his feet. A rustling among the trees led to several figures revealing themselves, they were all armed with bows and arrows all of which were trained on Eragon.

Eragon studied the newcomers, "Elves?"

**Well here's the end of my oneshot intro for Eragon's True Love, was it any good?**

**Feel free to review. All serious criticisms welcomed and any boosts to my ego especially wanted.**


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